Publication Work in The Lord's Recovery aka The One Publication

[Trapped]

While I don't disagree with the spirit of the concept that any Christian group has a right to set rules and regulations for its members, in the LCs many of the "rules" are not expressed outright, nor are they revealed up front. Many are set not in writing but through glances, looks, insinuations, comments, implications. No one coming into the church is given a list of rules that lets them know up front:

1. Don't grow a beard.
2. Jeans are rebellious.
3. Movies are evil.
4. Department stores are of the devil.
5. Don't have friends.
6. We only read one Bible version around here.
7. If you share from another Christian author too many times.....look out.
8. If you try to write something and publish it - you will be seen as a rival and are by default dead meat.
9. IF YOU GO TO ANY OTHER CHURCH YOU ARE DIVISIVE AND GOD WILL PROBABLY SEND AN ASTEROID TO CRUSH YOUR SINFUL BEING (just look at John Doe and the mac truck incident.......)

Sign here! ______________________________

No one would ever join if they knew up front what they were getting into.

If to be a member of the church you have to waive personal publication rights in deference to LSM's publication work or get quarantined......then the local churches have no leg to stand on when they try to deny people's claims that they are LSM churches. They just don't.

They can dance around all they want, but the more they write in defense of all this the worse it is. The letters they wrote to DYL speak of "rivalry"......where does any Christian group manufacture the concept of rivalry to begin with?!?! And it's all over mortal human's publications. And many go down tooth and nail defending this stuff.

I wish I could find it again, but one letter started out with a thick paragraph denigrating all other non-LC churches, and there was this one sentence that made it so crystal clear that the co-workers view "the Lord's recovery" as "the Body of Christ". Not a part of it, but THE. The sentence was full of "ones", as in "the one Body of Christ as built up by the one ministry in the one recovery work as produced by the one publication of the one minister of the age" or something like that. I was so deflated reading it.

Something I can't wrap my head around though, is that even now, I know of new ones who have "touched the church" who say very explicitly that the Lord told them to come there. Even they were prominent people in their former church, and yet the Lord led them to the local church to be a no one. And yet others like me are dissatisfied there and have lost decades of a happy life from warped misrepresentations of God and need years to recover from being there. Who can ever know what the Lord is doing.

P.S. I understand that TC and DYL apparently turned exclusionary themselves; I'm not defending what they did or really making any commentary there since I don't know the full story. The whole structure of the local churches is wrong since they are based around a man, which inherently lends itself to this kind of thing. I am fine to say that many churches were raised up by Witness Lee, that is undeniable. But the continued force-fed diet and control of all the LCs is not good. The LCs disguise this under the guise of "fellowship among the churches" but it seems to me the emphasis should be much more on fellowship among the members of the church in a given city rather than fellowship among churches in many different cities.

By this I mean they should emphasize the fellowship of the TRUE church in Anaheim (all the believers in Anaheim, regardless of where they meet or what they call themselves) rather than a tiny portion of the church in Anaheim (the LC) fellowshipping with a tiny portion of the (LC) church in Boston fellowshipping with a tiny portion of the (LC) church in Seattle, etc.. The LC's always denigrate other churches coming together as "shaking hands over the fence", but the LC's don't see that they've replaced their own fences with 20-foot cinder block walls and turrets and machine guns and a moat and drawbridge. It's asinine.

One time I talked to an elder about this very thing, and he tried to speak up how the churches emphasize "oneness". I said, "okay, but wouldn't you call it an internal oneness while we are still separated from all the other believers?" His response was, "Yes, well, you go talk to any of those other pastors out there and they don't even know the name of the pastor in the next town over!" I realized I wasn't dealing with someone with two feet on the ground. Who cares if they know the name of the pastor in the next town over? I'm more than willing to bet they know the names of other pastors in their own town, and probably are friends with them, and ask advice and have them over for lunch, which is more than we can say! The local churches are the most egregious neglecters of the actual church in their own city.

Sorry, went off topic there, that gets into the ground rather than the publication....it's all connected but I'll stop there.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Trapped

No one would ever join if they knew up front what they were getting into.

Children in "local church" families don't have choice: they're born and they're inside, at least temporarily. Those who joined 35 or 50 years ago didn't know any better. The history of control was hidden, many practices were disguised. "Oh, we just love Jesus". Then little by little "restrictions" got introduced into the programme.

Today with the internet and those who've come forward, it's clearer what one's getting into. Steve Isitt has published his investigation, Jane Anderson has told her story, John Ingalls' STTIL is available. (Note that Steve I. asked LSM leaders for permission to publish his story, they denied him the right, and 'marked' him for even asking [even tho WL had publicly requested that someone find the 'lost' ones!]).

Originally Posted by Trapped

Something I can't wrap my head around though, is that even now, I know of new ones who have "touched the church" who say very explicitly that the Lord told them to come there. Even they were prominent people in their former church, and yet the Lord led them to the local church to be a no one..

There's an interesting phenomenon in the "local churches" where they say, "Oh, you have to get the vision" of some idea or concept. Whether of the Body or the Ministry or the Church or the One New Man or God's Oracle or whatever the label is this week. The idea is that there needs to be some inner surrender (unquestioning acceptance - again, think of an infant vis-a-vis parents) and subsequent behavioural transformation that enables one to overcome the natural barriers of reticence. Somehow the human will has to be weakened.

Of course there is biblical basis for all of that. Verses abound. But what happens is that the process of surrender, obedience, and transformation gets hijacked by unscrupulous ones, wolves in sheep's clothing. It's a widespread phenomenon in religion, not limited to this group. The subjects think they're surrendering to God but they're not. They're rather surrendering to a group with its customs and peculiar relations. That is their "subjective Christ".

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Trapped

Sorry, went off topic there, that gets into the ground rather than the publication....it's all connected but I'll stop there.

The one publication is just another symptom of an extremely warped attitude.

The staunch LCers are convinced they are right. You are not going to change their minds. But your happiness or freedom should not depend on that.

I understand your frustration at wasted time. But don't waste more time trying to figure out why other people are crazy, you have enough on your plate just managing your own life. At some point you have to say "Thanks, but this is not for me," and move on. Church membership is NOT like a marriage. If our consciences are offended, we CAN vote with our feet. The LC has NO monopoly on anything. Either you believe that, or you don't. And if you don't, move on.

The bottom line is that the rest of your life starts today. I realize that separating from such a long commitment is not easy, and that you need a process of talking things out and working through it, and this board is great for that.

But you must realize you are not going to reform the LC. And for some questions you are not going to get answers for a long time. Don't waste more time in a whirlpool. By all means take advantage of these board discussions to work through things, but realize that the important thing now is fixing your life, not the LC. Take positive steps for the time you have remaining, and like the Lord did, leave their "house" to them and move on.

You might start by changing your name from "Trapped" to "Freed." Because if you believe you are trapped, you are. And if you believe you are free, you are.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Igzy

I understand your frustration at wasted time. But don't waste more time trying to figure out why other people are crazy, you have enough on your plate just managing your own life. At some point you have to say "Thanks, but this is not for me," and move on.

I respectfully disagree on two fronts. First, one must figure out what happened to truly move on. It's like a relationship - the danger is that you break off an abusive one & simply enter another. When I left the LC I went into a group where women were literally "silent in the church", because Paul had said this. Headcoverings were likewise mandatory. They didn't take a name or register with the government because, "Its not in the Bible". And they were arguably more controlling than the LC. They micromanaged lives and families with black-and-white verses.

Second, as you begin to figure things out to your own satisfaction you can help others who may be struggling with the same issues & questions. That way one's experiences are used by God to serve others (help them break off controlling and manipulative relationships). The issue proves the process - one's proved free by helping others along the path. Look at Jesus' words to Peter in Luke 22:32. See also Psa 51:12,13 - one's journey back to light is not for oneself but for others, else it's for naught.

[Cal]

Originally Posted by aron

I respectfully disagree on two fronts. First, one must figure out what happened to truly move on. It's like a relationship - the danger is that you break off an abusive one & simply enter another. When I left the LC I went into a group where women were literally "silent in the church", because Paul had said this. Headcoverings were likewise mandatory. They didn't take a name or register with the government because, "Its not in the Bible". And they were arguably more controlling than the LC. They micromanaged lives and families with black-and-white verses.

Second, as you begin to figure things out to your own satisfaction you can help others who may be struggling with the same issues & questions. That way one's experiences are used by God to serve others (help them break off controlling and manipulative relationships). The issue proves the process - one's proved free by helping others along the path. Look at Jesus' words to Peter in Luke 22:32. See also Psa 51:12,13 - one's journey back to light is not for oneself but for others, else it's for naught.

I agree in principle, but the question is: To what degree do you take those efforts? Certainly you need to figure some things out, but there also needs to be some closure. God has called us to life and peace, and the idea that a lack of complete clarity about what happened need steal your peace must not hold.

Trust me, I'm one of those people who want to know EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. But experience has shown me we can't understand everything, at least not right away. One reason I visit here is to see if there are more insights. If I made my happiness dependent on understanding everything I'd waste my life.

Also, if anyone is out there who feels like they will not have any peace in their life until the LC is exposed, brought down and put in its place, I would say to them that is a symptom of your still being controlled by them. Let that go. Try to be more objective, remove your sense of self-esteem or God's esteem for you from the equation. Your peace about YOURSELF cannot depend on the LC getting its just desserts or even admitting to anything.

We all post here because, in part, we want to see the LC exposed and justice to be served. But don't make your sense of peace and freedom depend on that. That's my point.

[awareness]

Originally Posted by Igzy

I agree in principle, but the question is: To what degree do you take those efforts?

My own personal experience is that it could take decades to change a local churcher, or in my particular experience an ex-LCer.

And the only reason to stay at the task is because of loving them. Otherwise you won't stay at it.

I wormed the brother for years. Worming is throwing the truth on their hard noggin, so that the worms eventually bore down into their head, and a little light comes in, and then a aha moment happens.

But it can take years, even decades, for the worms to bore thru. And when they do, you won't get any credit for it. Which is the way it should be.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Igzy

But you must realize you are not going to reform the LC.

I became convinced of this fact after reading Plymouth Brethren History.

They were our spiritual forebears. They also had the ground of oneness, all the riches, the MOTA Oracle, condemnation of all others, etc. . . All of the same ingredients of arrogant pride now infecting LSM. Did they ever change? No! Never! Nada! As they say.

Actually the only glimmer of hope that existed in that system was excommunication. Complete and thorough. Still, many of the excommunicated stayed in a morphed version of those who excommunicated them. Like those in the Gospels at Jesus' time, your greatest hope was in being thrown out of the synagogue.

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Ohio

I became convinced of this fact after reading Plymouth Brethren History.

They were our spiritual forebears. They also had the ground of oneness, all the riches, the MOTA Oracle, condemnation of all others, etc. . . All of the same ingredients of arrogant pride now infecting LSM. Did they ever change? No! Never! Nada! As they say.

Actually the only glimmer of hope that existed in that system was excommunication. Complete and thorough. Still, many of the excommunicated stayed in a morphed version of those who excommunicated them. Like those in the Gospels at Jesus' time, your greatest hope was in being thrown out of the synagogue.

History shows empires don't reform, they collapse.

Here a relevant quote:

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

-- Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, 1841

People wander away from the LC one by one, nursing hangovers and asking themselves, "What happened?" All the while the herd they left behind continues in its madness.

What happened is the madness of crowds; and madness, at some level, is unexplainable.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ny...Qe_w-t-tEELT4f

[Trapped]

Yes, I agree with the "move on" thing, but the reality is I'm just not there yet. "Moving on" is still tantamount to stepping into space without a tether. I'm not someone who make rash moves and I personally can't move on until I'm moving on towards or connected to something. Otherwise I'm moving on into a vast empty desert.

This forum is where I am only beginning to flex muscles that were snipped as a kid when I wasn't even aware. It may look like I'm languishing here but that's not my intention at all. My posts are just me thinking for myself for once. Using logic for once. Not pounding my square head into a round Lee hole for once wondering why everyone around me loves his stuff and I get nothing from it.

I know I can't reform the LC's; I'm well aware. That wasn't really the intention of my proposed revised version of the One Pub a few posts back. The point of that "revision" was just to show how easy it is to say clearly what LCers try to pass off that it's saying but really isn't. Or how easy it is to take a line that protects LSMs publication rights while balancing the validity of other publications rather than taking the shamefully haughty position that only Lee has the light. And to say that he should be subject to the same discernment as any other Christian author.

I'm just punching against the bully I didn't know I could defend myself against. I'll run out of the desire to punch at some point and will be able to walk away.

Igzy, I understand when you say you are a person who needs to know what happened. I am too, but I also need to know why. I can't stand up after decades on the ground, shake it off, say "huh, that was weird" and walk off in another direction. I don't want to lose more decades lost in another wormhole group, missing the mark. Was there no point to those decades? Why did they happen if not for something? Otherwise what we go through in life is meaningless.

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Trapped

Igzy, I understand when you say you are a person who needs to know what happened. I am too, but I also need to know why. I can't stand up after decades on the ground, shake it off, say "huh, that was weird" and walk off in another direction. I don't want to lose more decades lost in another wormhole group, missing the mark. Was there no point to those decades? Why did they happen if not for something? Otherwise what we go through in life is meaningless.

I totally get your whole post. I've been there. Let me just say the following:

1) Realize your value to the Lord has NOTHING to do with your status with the LC. He values you and loves you as his precious child and that has nothing to do with being affiliated with a church movement. You must get to a place where your self-esteem before the Lord is not fundamentally based on anything to do with the LC or any other group.

2) No group or person owns the Church. The church belongs to Christ. He "loans" aspects of the church to practical groups, but he can just as easily take back those things. The Lord never lets fallen people hold the church or its members hostage. Anyone who thinks he does is sadly deceived.

3) All church groups are imperfect. This is something we need to get. There have been many, many godly people in the Catholic church, but there have been some other things that are not good. It's a mixture. The LC is no different. When you ask what was that all about, what did it mean, it meant that the Lord works wherever he can as much as he can. But just because he is working in a place does not mean that is the only place he is working or can work. Because we were so committed to the Lord in the LC he was able to do many amazing things. But because it was eventually overwhelmed by a warped vision, it became toxic in some ways.

Lee clearly saw that the church has its good and bad sides. Where he went off the reservation was to look at the good in the LC and disregard the bad, and at the same time look at the bad in "Christianity" and disregard the good. In other words, he looked at the LC in an idealized way, at what he hoped it would become, while doing the exact opposite with any other groups. This bait-and-switch, equivocating mentality is rampant in LC thinking. But it's so subtle to them that they don't see it, because they believe they are special and chosen and so operating under a set of rules which favors them, which is the calling card of every errant group that ever existed.

4) The fact is there are contradictions in the LC. Some can take them, some can't. If you can't the Lord is not, in principle anyway, telling you to stay. That is, it is not fundamentally by his law and nature necessary for you to stay. He may be leading you practically to stay, he may be leading you to leave, he may even be leaving it up to you. But there is no bedrock principle that says you must stay.

5) So what did it mean? It meant God was working. It meant he was there with people that were meeting in his name, just as he said he would be. What was really good about the LC? The Lord, the Spirit, the brotherly love. Other stuff like being "the Recovery" or "bringing the Lord back" were exciting, but that probably isn't what kept you there. The Lord puts up with a lot of our silliness to be with us, but that doesn't validate the silliness. It was those basics that mattered: love, fellowship, relationship, purpose. All and only the things that are available anywhere.

So, again, my advice is get yourself to a place where you feel good about where you are. Don't feel like you have to figure everything out before you get there. The same approach must be taken with other things in life which don't make sense: the death of a loved one, a divorce, unfairly losing a job, any major challenge which doesn't make sense. You have to decide to be happy without having figured out why it happened. As I said, at some level madness is unexplainable, and you have to trust that the Lord sees and knows everything and will make known what we need to know when we need to know it. It always comes down to faith in him.

[Cal]

Let me put it this way:

What matters to the Lord is that which is available in any church group. What is only available in some or one does not matter to him.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Igzy

So, again, my advice is get yourself to a place where you feel good about where you are. Don't feel like you have to figure everything out before you get there. The same approach must be taken with other things in life which don't make sense: the death of a loved one, a divorce, unfairly losing a job, any major challenge which doesn't make sense. You have to decide to be happy without having figured out why it happened. As I said, at some level madness is unexplainable, and you have to trust that the Lord sees and knows everything and will make known what we need to know when we need to know it. It always comes down to faith in him.

Igzy, great words of wisdom here.

Last year I took a class to study the book of Job. Never studied that book before, in fact, in the LC I was told it was a waste of time. All the sages of the land gathered to help poor Job understand the unexplainable madness which had suddenly engulfed him. None could help him. Today mankind, with all its vast improvements in technology and learning, has no more wisdom to understand the often times unexplainable madness of life than any of Job's friends to answer these questions.

The message of this book, written for all of God's people, is to save us from trying to figure everything out. We are on a journey of faith. The number of days we have on this journey have been predetermined. God's way for us is to believe Him . . . regardless of what comes our way. Faith demands that we trust God, our creator and Father, and this faith, like everything else of value, needs testing. Nothing in human life can prove our faith except hardships and obedience to God.

James encourages us to "count it all joy brothers." Rejoicing in the Lord helps to save us from the disease of "I gotta understand what's goin' on," and strengthens our faith to love and know Him.